Project Spartan now available in the Windows 10 Technical Preview for phones

As Gabe just announced on the Windows Blog, the latest Windows 10 Technical Preview build for phones is now available. With it, we are delighted to announce that Project Spartan for Windows phones is available to preview in this build.

It's been just over a week since Project Spartan was available in the last desktop flight, and the feedback we've received has been tremendous—both the kudos and many ways we can improve. We are humbled that so many people have taken the time to send thousands of pieces of feedback, and to add thousands of votes on features at our desktop Project Spartan Feature Suggestion Box. Thank you!

This build, like last week's desktop build, is a very early look at software that we’re actively developing. You'll still find Internet Explorer 11 as the default browser in this preview – in a later update, Project Spartan will be the only browser included on Windows phones. Project Spartan can be found in the All Apps list, and you can pin it to the start screen yourself.

You'll find that this build has our new design for our Windows phone version, with the address bar on top, and a small actions bar at the bottom (a bug in this build means that the actions menu is larger than its intended to be). We’ve heard your early feedback about the position of the address bar, and we are looking closely at the design. We encourage you to try out, see what you think, and continue to share your feedback with us.

You'll also find early versions of the mobile reading view and reading list. Other features will light up in future flights.

And btw, the cautiousness to not alienate Android and iOS users by placing the address bar on top and remove one of the best features in Windows Phone is so very short sighted. Soon Apple or Google will put the address bar at the bottom and market it as a great feature, just as Google is starting to remove the hamburger menu and introduce pivots in their new Youtube app whereas Microsoft now is adopting the crap hamburger menu and removing the pivots.

How about just not having so much of the UI obscured by buttons too? A fixed address bar on a phone these days is silly, and all of the competition realizes this. Even crazier is that in Windows 8's Metro IE, it appeared that the Windows team had the right path forward for a touch-based browser UI as well… and now you're stepping back to this retro design that leaves me with a small viewport for the actual content I'm trying to see.

I don't care that much about whether the address bar is at the top or the bottom of the screen, really. But if you decide to obstruct our view on one side, stick to it. Loosing precious content viewport room is already annoying enough not to have to see this on both sides of the browser.

I use phones with MS since Windows mobile and could enjoy the pros both of them….and I also had iPhone and android phones yet…i hope also you will give us the decisions to choose whether the address bar is on the top or bottom…also in other cases it would be perfect to choose different visualizations…if possible and practical…I hope also, that scrolling in very long lists is now easier, because my finger hurts after scrolling a few thousand lines

Bottom bar is actually the best Feature of the browser, even on WP7 I loved it and it is better than e.g. iPhone Safari.

Also please a single bar and not one at top and another at the bottom. BTW, Hamburger menus are another Problem *IF* placed at top. The hamburger is very similar to the … menu on current Windows. But … is much nicer as standing out from the competition (as does not look like Android) AND is on bottom, at least currently. Totally agree with "a" above.

Bottom bar on Surface works nicely too, when e.g. Holding the device in Hands easy to use thumbs on Actions or typing.

On Surface I really like the (Metro) Default Fullscreen view (almost fullscreen apart form the tiny … bottom bar) . I liked the Win 8 real Fullscreen without the bar even better. It is lending to pinned webapps perfectly, actually one reason in our agency we use a Windows tablet (for a webapp used in store for sales People).

Please place single bar at bottom or at least make it configurable, thank you!

forgot, guess you won't anyway but please do not copy the ludicrous "reachability double tap to whatever" of the iPhone 6+. Place main Actions on the bottom, Problem solved.

Also hubs (side by side pages viewable by swiping left/right) is still a great way on smaller Screens. Another reason I do not understand the hamburger stuff which basically used for the same stuff. Maybe a hamburger menu can have more Options than a hub can have columns (guess a reasonable number is maybe 3 or 4?). Still the MAIN pages should not be more the 4 for a given app. I understand the platform has to Progress but the URL bar at the top and hamburgers seem a Regression and not Progression 🙁

Agree with the comment n°5 : Address bar at the bottom, please =) Think different ^^ And yes Pivot are better than hamburger button … Sad move for Windows 10 … Windows 10 will be better than 8.1 on desktop but for now 8.1 looks better on touch device :-/

+1 for address bar at the bottom. Perfect location for smartphones and tablets. reasons: (1) moves UI out of the way on small screens (2) is easier to use with one hand (3) concept was proven useful for several years with WP8 and Metro IE on tablets.

Anybody else lose the ability to pin project Spartan to start screen? I accidently dropped it on another app which tried to create a folder, now I lost the ability to pin project Spartan to start screen.

The most important features of a phone seem to be missing, that is the phone and texting are not working. The windows close as soon as I try to open them. I installed earlier today, and features have been slowly lighting up, Outlook ,etc. I am going it's just a matter of time though I would think the phone and the messaging to be the first features to light up. The interface seems a bit nicer.

why is Spartan so slow?? javascript just crawls. if I open a site like nextdoor.com, its hardly usable. The same sites fly on an iPhone and an Android phone. Phone gets hot when Spartan is used to browse sites.

pls tell the WP devs to fix this blunder asap. you shouldn't be able to search a highlighted text in a filled form. also, allow to paste in a form but disallow copying/cutting highlighted text from a filled form.